Actor Taisei Kido plays the real-life genius poet Nakahara Chuya in the film "Yukite Kaheranu" (directed by Negishi Kichitaro), starring Suzu Hirose. Kido, now 28 years old, attracted attention for playing the younger version of the protagonist played by Takeru Satoh in the 2022 Netflix original series "First Love," and last year he made a name for himself by appearing in a series of dramas, including "9 Border" (TBS) and "The Beginning of the Sea" (Fuji TV). Kido, who can be said to be one of the "actors to watch this year," talked about his role in this film, in which he plays a real person for the first time, and the behind-the-scenes stories of the filming.
◇ Director Negishi chose her after watching "First Love"
"Yukite Kaeranu" is set in the Taisho and early Showa periods and depicts the passionate love and youth of three real people. Hasegawa Yasuko (Hirose), an actress who has yet to make her debut, meets Nakahara Chuya (Kido), a young man who will later be called a genius poet of the ages. The two, who are somewhat competitive with each other, are attracted to each other and begin living together. After that, when the two move to Tokyo, they are visited by Kobayashi Hideo (Masaki Okada), a friend of Chuya's who will later become one of Japan's leading literary critics. This chance encounter changes the destinies of the three people...
Kido, who plays Chuuya, was born on December 10, 1996 in Fukuoka Prefecture. He made his acting debut in 2017 and appeared in the NHK BS Premium children's program "Otosan to Issho" from 2018 to 2021. He gained attention for his excellent performance in the Netflix original series "First Love" in 2022. In 2023, he will star in his first drama series in "Bokutachi no Kounai Housou" (Fuji TV). He also appeared in "Yuria Sensei no Akai Ito" (TV Asahi). He is currently appearing in the NHK night drama "Vanilla na Mainichi" (General, Monday to Thursday 10:45 pm).
Why was Kido-san selected for the role of Chuuya in this film? Director Negishi chose him after watching "First Love." Kido-san smiles and says, "I was very happy that Chuuya chose me for my acting, not for my personality."
Kido, who is playing a real person for the first time, said, "As a modern person, I felt that I was far from being able to understand Nakahara, who was a poet who lived in the Taisho era and was also a genius, so I thought that I had to start by getting to know him better. So I went to the Nakahara Chuya Memorial Museum in Yamaguchi Prefecture and read a lot of materials. I started by getting to know Nakahara, including his relationship with the two of them (Yasuko and Kobayashi), as well as his poems that don't appear in the play."
"This time in particular, there were many people around him who actually existed and who still like and support Chuuya, and read his poetry, so I was able to take in even more information about him than I had in previous roles. Perhaps I did it carefully because it was the first time I was playing a real person."
Upon researching Nakata, he said, "I heard that he was born into a really good family, was cherished, and was known as a child prodigy. But living in such a family made him feel rebellious, so he ran away from home. I realized that this was what drove him to try to grasp poetry." He added, "In terms of the story in the play, not only when he met Yasuko, but also the negative emotions he felt at the time of their separation are very much present in Nakata's poetry."
There were many other things that had to be prepared. For example, there are several scenes in which Chuuya skates skillfully on roller skates, but he was a complete beginner when it came to roller skating. Kido-san recalls, "I couldn't skate at all. I had to start from scratch with this production. I started with the shoes that everyone wears for fun at the roller rink. I was really just a toddler."
"This time, I had to prepare a lot in advance. Even in the scene where I read Rimbaud's poem in French, I had some French in my head, and then I deliberately practiced reading it poorly. I also practiced playing kendama."
◇The scene where he reads the poem is a kind of "play on sounds" that is similar to "what we would call rap today"?
When playing the role of a poet from the Taisho period, I had to exude an atmosphere that is not found in modern people.
"I think that being able to bare all of your emotions to this extent is something only people of this generation could do. In particular, the emotional clash between Chuuya and Yasuko meant that the part where they let out everything they were thinking was something I'd never experienced before. I'd never been able to express everything I was thinking so clearly before, so it took a lot of energy."
The lines were also delivered in a way that was unique to the Taisho period. Regarding the lines, he said, "The director told me to speak every single sound clearly. If I spoke in a vague manner, it would sound like I was a modern young person, so one thing I was conscious of was to speak the sounds clearly."
Since the filming was done in sequential order (shooting in order starting from the first scene), filming began with a long take of the scene where Yasuko and Nakaya meet.
"The director said that he wanted to show Chuuya's appearance in a way that would make you go, 'Who is this guy?' So I tried to make it seem like a really strange guy has arrived, that even though he's in his teens he has a strange aura about him, and that I had to make people wonder, 'Who is this guy?'"
Regarding the scene where he and Kobayashi read the poem together, he said, "The director said it was all about 'playing with sounds,' so although it wasn't what we would call rap today, I had a lot of fun playing with the rhythm, the rhyme and that sort of thing. When I read Rimbaud's poem with Kobayashi, I think it really came out that we were playing around with the fun of sounds, and also the innocence of the two of them, with Kobayashi simply understanding French and Chuuya enjoying it even though he doesn't understand. Seeing this, Yasuko becomes jealous. I tried to capture the youth of two men in that scene."
Regarding Nakahara's poetry, he emphasized, "I decided to go with my own interpretation. I may not know the correct answer, and I don't know what Nakahara himself thought, but I wanted to cherish what I thought."
Kido absorbed Nakaya into his body and played the role of Nakaya. "Yukite Kaeranu" is now showing nationwide, and you can see his crazy acting, which can be said to be a new frontier.
